The Big Interview: Sir Jackie Stewart

Sir Jackie thinks Max Mosley has too much power. I think he may be on to something...



http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-sport/article-23708002-details/The+Big+Interview:+Sir+Jackie+Stewart/article.do

Champion: Sir Jackie Stewart won three World Formula One titles
The Big Interview: Sir Jackie Stewart
Chris Blackhurst
16.06.09

Sir Jackie Stewart turned 70 last Thursday. At his home in the Chilterns near Aylesbury, surrounded by trophies and awards from his Formula One racing days and in the company of his wife, Helen, his two sons, Paul and Mark, and nine grandchildren, the three-time world champion displayed the same fire that drove him to glory.

"It doesn't feel any different at all, to be honest," he said in that familiar, Dumbartonshire drawl. "I'm not an age-watcher. In my mind, I'm still below 30."

But while Stewart was in celebratory mood, his thoughts on his own sport, which he used to dominate and which has served him so well, were anything but positive. It's not that he doesn't delight in the racing - he does and nothing has pleased him more than this season and the progress of Jenson Button. He is looking forward to Sunday's Silverstone Grand Prix with relish.

It's rather that he fears for the future of Formula One, that he worries for its long-term prosperity, even its very survival. Too much power, he argues, resides with just two people - Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone - and they're taking decisions which could cut off its sponsorship lifeblood.

I last met Stewart back when the Max row was in full swing and Mosley's position as president of the FIA, the motor sport governing body, appeared precarious to say the least. Stewart was full of criticism of Mosley and believed that once the scandal surrounding his private life had become public he should have resigned.

Since then, Mosley went on to not only survive a confidence vote and to win a legal case against the News of the World but if anything, to consolidate his authority at the pinnacle of the sport. Has Stewart altered his view in any way? His face breaks into that characteristic, impish smile.

Ask a silly question. "No, not at all. I'm still of exactly the same opinion I was then. Had Max Mosley been in the ruling organisation of any other game or chairman or CEO of a large public corporation or bank he would have gone. No question. It's inconceivable to imagine him surviving if he'd been at the International Olympic Committee, Lawn Tennis Association or Royal & Ancient at St Andrew's."

What Mosley's triumph shows, asserts Stewart, "Is that the FIA is led by one man. The power Max has over the sport is so totalitarian he can survive something that if he had been elsewhere he would have had to resign.

"To me, it is a clear indication of just how much the governance of our sport needs to be put in order. Max has such power over the underlying system that he can't be put out."

Stewart said he could see which way the wind was blowing. "As time went past he made sure he would recover."

So strong is Mosley's grip now that Stewart believes that while the president indicated in December he would stand down in October but would take a final decision on a new term this month, he will be re-elected for four years. "Nobody is prepared to stand against him. The infrastructure is created in such a way that it seems impossible for him to be taken out," added Stewart. "None of it does the reputation of the sport any good."

Mosley's insistence on a £40million budget cap, claimed Stewart, showed the danger of too much control resting with one man. "I'm not against spending money - I'm a Scotsman. But Max wants to play God as to what the costs must be. It should be a team's prerogative as to what its sponsorship money and revenue should be spent on."

No thought had been given, he said, to what would occur, should a team need a vital component for its car.

If it had a tie-up with an engine manufacturer, it could go to them and they would produce the part for next to nothing - when to source it from scratch on the open market might result in a hefty bill. "How do you police that price? It's fraught with difficulties. Do the accountants say 'that's it, you're over budget, you're out?' "What will the public and sponsors make of that? There's nothing wrong with saying that costs must be brought into line, but I firmly believe it should be the domain of the teams and not the FIA."

By playing hard-ball, said Stewart, Mosley was running the risk of ruining the sport, of giving sponsors an excuse they could be seeking in the teeth of a recession to withdraw. "It's a very real danger. We've got to understand that Formula 1 is the most capital intensive investment sport in the world - bigger than horseracing, than the NFL, than soccer. The amount of capital expenditure that goes into it is huge. The England football team, for instance, may wear their strips but those shirts may well be made in Vietnam for next to nothing. There are 50,000 people in the UK who work in F1."

It's not right, he argued, that such a vital part of the UK economy was dependent on "the ego games that are being played right now".

Stewart said he found it inconceivable that this weekend's grand prix at Silverstone may be the last for some time in this country, if Donington, which has won the race from next year, is unable to make the required improvements.

"We've lost the US Grand Prix, we've lost the Canadian Grand Prix and we've lost France. Now we face the loss of the British Grand Prix.

"Bernie will say it can go somewhere else as the others have done but what is going on? For the sponsors there is no bigger market than the US. Canada, France and Britain. They want to be in those countries."

Newer locations, such as Singapore and Bahrain, clamour to be included and will happily step in to replace countries which have lost their races. Stewart is unenthused. "So, big deal, we go to Singapore which has got a smaller population than Scotland. If you take a company like Shell, the UK is important for them. Bernie may say it doesn't matter but it's not the same."

The most recent grand prix, in Turkey, where less than 20,000 turned up to watch, he said, illustrated the weakness in focusing on countries where there was no racing tradition. "We've got Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button and this weekend, oodles of people will attend to see them. Before then we had John Surtees, Graham Hill, Damon Hill, Nigel Mansell, James Hunt, Stirling Moss and myself. There's a buzz about the sport here - and it's that buzz that sponsors want."

By pulling out of Britain - and Stewart is certain F1 supremo Ecclestone will stick to his threat of not returning to Silverstone if Donington isn't ready for 2010 - the sport is sending the wrong signal to sponsors. "They want to be here, because the interest and the demand for their products is here, yet F1 won't be here. It was perverse to be behaving in this fashion when sponsors are examining their budgets. We can't have a situation where the accountants decide we can't mess the big manufacturers around."

One of the reasons given for the poor audience in Turkey was the belief in some quarters that this year's series is over, that all the excitement has gone as Button has pulled so far ahead. Stewart rejects this notion. "It's been a fantastic year so far and for Jenson but the fat lady has not sung yet. One error may mean he won't win the British Grand Prix or several others."

He's not taken back by the decline this year of Hamilton. "Lewis's car has been performing badly and he's never driven a bad car in his life. He doesn't know how to turn it around. But it's not his fault. There's an issue for the sport as to why McLaren is so far behind. They've not been able to correct what's wrong because there's no room any more for testing."

Also, he said, "it's not easy to win world championships back to back. I didn't do it. Michael Schumacher did it but Michael was able to concentrate totally on his driving - he didn't have to make all the publicity appearances that Lewis has had to make."

He is in no doubt, however, that Lewis will come back. "He's still only 23. I'd not even driven a Formula 1 car until I was 25. Lewis's skills will enable him to come back. His team will come back but if not, he will move. And he will win with someone else."

While Stewart is a fan of Hamilton he's also got a lot of time for Button. "There's no doubt that in his early years, Jenson was intoxicated by it all. He was a young man and he was given enormous amounts of money and deluged with offers. That's very hard for anyone to deal with. But the skill was always there. He's changed - he's much more mature now. You can see that from the way he's dealing with everybody. He's really motivated."

While Button has captured the headlines and will dominate this week - "let me tell you, he will want to win at Silverstone, everyone wants to win in their home country" - he worries about the future health of the sport. He professes to be full of admiration for what Ecclestone has done but says there must be change, that conflicting factions must be knocked together.

"The infrastructure of the governance of the sport is wrong. Max and Bernie have worked very well together. If Max left, Bernie would lose more than 50 per cent of his power. Same as if Bernie left, Max would also lose more than 50 per cent, because they work together so well. We've got to get head-hunters in and find a top CEO from outside motor racing to come in and put our house in order. All the time we're looking at short-term solutions but they have long-term implications. It's got to be put on a stronger, more business-like footing. There has to be a greater distribution of money and power within the sport as there is in other sports like tennis, golf and football."

He lowered his voice. "Dictatorships work very well but at some point they must end. Max is a year younger than me. Bernie is 78. I really appreciate his skills but there's no succession. We don't have a young driver programme, there's no sport-wide R&D engineering programme, no improvement of spectator and racing facilities."

At 70, Stewart says he has long moved on from taking a leading role himself. He bowed out in 2000, when he sold his Stewart team to Ford. He's got two more years on his Royal Bank of Scotland personal sponsorship to run. "I love the sport but I've never wanted to be involved in a senior role again." He pauses. "It's not the same. The governance of the sport has to change."

He knows that Mosley and Ecclestone will dismiss him. Likewise, they must realise that he won't shift. He may be 70 but Sir Jackie Stewart doesn't back down - not ever, not for anyone.

 

In the NFL the team owners make the decisions. It seems to work well for them. They do have a Commissioner but guess who appoints him.

The NFL is one of the best run, most profitable and respected sports leagues on the planet and the teams don't pay to play as they do in F1.

I think FOTA should take a page out of the NFL rule book when they setup the new series.

The other thing that helps the NFL maintain competitive balance is that NFL Properties owns all of the team logos and does all of the licensing deals for the teams. The revenue from these deals is evenly distributed to all of the teams to help the small market teams compete.

I think I should call LDM and see if he needs any help setting things up ;-)

 

I had not seen that, but you make a good point

 

I don't see how that matters. The NFL has to keep up with tech on steroids and salary caps and other areas, tech is just one aspect.

No team should get a veto, they should all be equal. You can do some research on how the NFL owners work if you want to know how I think things should be run.